let me ask you to do something for me
please and that’s to close your eyes
and while they’re closed I want you to
get a really bright strong picture of
someone who’s homeless in our community
you have the picture okay you can open
your eyes now your pictures probably
pretty similar to someone I’ve gotten to
know really well over the last few years
when I first met Amy was living under a
bridge he was dirty skinny looked like
he hadn’t had a meal in months all of
his possessions in that bag right next
to him right and he often asked for all
of us to provide him something as you
passed by him is that similar to your
picture well as I got to know Dave I
realized that that was only one piece of
his picture and in fact as I got to know
him more what I learned was that he was
a veteran honorably served our country
for four years living under a bridge
with PTSD so this is the picture that
many of us have of who is homeless in
Central Florida single guy on the
streets suffering with a mental or
physical disability but would it
surprise you to know that’s not our
entire picture of homelessness and what
do you think the largest population is
well we do have some single women we
have some children but our biggest
population our biggest population of
homelessness are our families they’re
our neighbors and they are in many cases
your employees so would it surprise you
to know in our community the
one in 17 children one in 17th are at
risk of being homeless this year that
45% of us
that’s 1.8 million people in our
community are what we call the working
poor working 40 50 60 hours a week often
to part-time jobs and they can’t make it
they can’t live here in Central Florida
is that surprising to you when we’re
talking about families who can’t make it
I want to introduce you like I
introduced you to Dave to a family John
and Jenna and their three kids now John
and Jenna just moved their family down
to Central Florida because they lost
their job up in the north John’s got a
great skill he’s a computer tech
immediately found a job here in Central
Florida making $10 an hour now that’s
down from his $20 that he made up in
Ohio so his wife is going to have to go
back to work to make ends meet but we’ve
got a great economy here it’s growing
and it’s thriving he got a job too right
away making eight dollars and 50 cents
an hour as a receptionist so that’s
great right two full-time parents taking
care of their three children on more
than minimum wage well let’s see about
that when you take John and Jenna’s
monthly net income of two thousand two
hundred and twenty dollars and you take
away a modest amount for food and gas
and then you think about their key
drivers every month living in a
week-to-week hotel because they can’t
afford the down payment on an apartment
transportation for Jenna because they
only have one car and childcare for
three children without spending one
extra penny they’re in the hole every
month $500 to working adults working
full-time
not minimum wage and they can’t make it
here in Central Florida so what are we
doing at the Central Florida Commission
on homelessness to make a difference in
these populations let me go back to Dave
remember I told you has a chronic
illness or chronic disability of some
sort and this is the way we
traditionally dealt with the Dave’s of
the world we would send him to a shelter
and say to him well it’s gonna cost you
eight dollars every night that you’re
here so what I want you to do is I want
to pick yourself up by the bootstraps go
find a job and maybe then we’ll find you
some housing all right remember Dave
suffers from mental or physical
disabilities and it just wasn’t working
over decades we kept trying the same old
same old thing running people through
transitional housing asking them to buck
it up go get a job and it was costing
our community $31,000 per year per
person to do it this way can you imagine
so then there were some really smart
people around the country who went you
know what we need to start challenging
the status quo we need to do something
different we have to change and so the
new model for the 21st century it’s
called the housing first model now think
about this if you give someone a home
they’re no longer homeless no no no
think about that when you give someone a
home they’re no longer homeless and this
is the model we’ve started employing
here in Central Florida and I am so
proud to say that our are three County
region in 18 months 18 months by using
the system we have housed nearly 800
formerly homeless people those who had
the most chronically
severe situations some of them 10 15 20
years living on the streets 800 people
we’ve has that deserves a round of
applause right oh and this model
remember $31,000 this on average across
the nation is costing our community
10,000 not only is it the right thing to
do it is absolutely the smart thing to
do so what about our families the John’s
and Jenna’s and their children what do
we do about them
well we haven’t figured that out what we
do know is that the basis of it we have
to get our families stabilized into
homes but it’s much more complex because
it’s economic right there is a gap
between what we make and what it costs
to live in Central Florida
on average $15 the cost to live here
$20 there’s a gap of almost $5 an hour
so what do we do about that well we
could raise wages we could look for
creative solutions to affordable housing
we could subsidize transportation and
childcare so what do we do I would argue
yes yes and yes it is a combination of
all of that but that’s going to require
a community strategy it’s going to take
all of us each and every one of you in
this room whether you represent business
government nonprofit the faith community
we have to have a community strategy on
how we fill that gap and it’s not unlike
any other community strategy we’ve ever
employed whether it’s I don’t know build
a new stadium or build a university even
in Central Florida bill
an entire Medical City it took a
strategy that was based on a shared
common vision on what we wanted to see
happen and then underpinning that vision
we have to have great data clear
deadlines and the dollars to support
that shared vision
can you imagine building this gorgeous
place without having all of those
elements in place in Central Florida
you’ve been on i-4 recently right the
i-4 ultimate project cost us 1.2 billion
dollars to get us a better way to
transfer from one region one part of the
region to the next
could you imagine the Florida Department
of Transportation doing that without
having excellent data great research
clear deadlines and the dollars to get
it done
could we employ the same approach to
solving homelessness we can and we are
at the Central Florida Commission on
homelessness with all of our partners
that’s our approach what we’re trying to
understand as a system is how do you get
a hundred and thirty different
organizations that currently touch
homelessness working in the same
direction well it starts with great data
for the last three years the Commission
has been working to put a face on
homelessness so that we can begin to see
our homeless as individual people who
need our help and support
it also takes deadlines two years ago we
said we were gonna house 300 chronically
homeless people and we’ve housed 800 we
can’t let up we have to continue on
clear consistent deadlines so we don’t
forget who we’re serving and finally
dollars this is not a government issue
alone
we all need to invest in this issue it’s
going to take all of us to invest in
solving homelessness for it to happen
so here vision data deadlines dollars
can we do this can you believe in this
vision because it’s gonna take all of us
can you believe that we could implement
a system and the underpinning of that
system is the belief that everyone in
Central Florida everyone in our
community deserves a home can you
believe can we work together to rethink
homelessness thank you very much
[Applause]
please and that’s to close your eyes
and while they’re closed I want you to
get a really bright strong picture of
someone who’s homeless in our community
you have the picture okay you can open
your eyes now your pictures probably
pretty similar to someone I’ve gotten to
know really well over the last few years
when I first met Amy was living under a
bridge he was dirty skinny looked like
he hadn’t had a meal in months all of
his possessions in that bag right next
to him right and he often asked for all
of us to provide him something as you
passed by him is that similar to your
picture well as I got to know Dave I
realized that that was only one piece of
his picture and in fact as I got to know
him more what I learned was that he was
a veteran honorably served our country
for four years living under a bridge
with PTSD so this is the picture that
many of us have of who is homeless in
Central Florida single guy on the
streets suffering with a mental or
physical disability but would it
surprise you to know that’s not our
entire picture of homelessness and what
do you think the largest population is
well we do have some single women we
have some children but our biggest
population our biggest population of
homelessness are our families they’re
our neighbors and they are in many cases
your employees so would it surprise you
to know in our community the
one in 17 children one in 17th are at
risk of being homeless this year that
45% of us
that’s 1.8 million people in our
community are what we call the working
poor working 40 50 60 hours a week often
to part-time jobs and they can’t make it
they can’t live here in Central Florida
is that surprising to you when we’re
talking about families who can’t make it
I want to introduce you like I
introduced you to Dave to a family John
and Jenna and their three kids now John
and Jenna just moved their family down
to Central Florida because they lost
their job up in the north John’s got a
great skill he’s a computer tech
immediately found a job here in Central
Florida making $10 an hour now that’s
down from his $20 that he made up in
Ohio so his wife is going to have to go
back to work to make ends meet but we’ve
got a great economy here it’s growing
and it’s thriving he got a job too right
away making eight dollars and 50 cents
an hour as a receptionist so that’s
great right two full-time parents taking
care of their three children on more
than minimum wage well let’s see about
that when you take John and Jenna’s
monthly net income of two thousand two
hundred and twenty dollars and you take
away a modest amount for food and gas
and then you think about their key
drivers every month living in a
week-to-week hotel because they can’t
afford the down payment on an apartment
transportation for Jenna because they
only have one car and childcare for
three children without spending one
extra penny they’re in the hole every
month $500 to working adults working
full-time
not minimum wage and they can’t make it
here in Central Florida so what are we
doing at the Central Florida Commission
on homelessness to make a difference in
these populations let me go back to Dave
remember I told you has a chronic
illness or chronic disability of some
sort and this is the way we
traditionally dealt with the Dave’s of
the world we would send him to a shelter
and say to him well it’s gonna cost you
eight dollars every night that you’re
here so what I want you to do is I want
to pick yourself up by the bootstraps go
find a job and maybe then we’ll find you
some housing all right remember Dave
suffers from mental or physical
disabilities and it just wasn’t working
over decades we kept trying the same old
same old thing running people through
transitional housing asking them to buck
it up go get a job and it was costing
our community $31,000 per year per
person to do it this way can you imagine
so then there were some really smart
people around the country who went you
know what we need to start challenging
the status quo we need to do something
different we have to change and so the
new model for the 21st century it’s
called the housing first model now think
about this if you give someone a home
they’re no longer homeless no no no
think about that when you give someone a
home they’re no longer homeless and this
is the model we’ve started employing
here in Central Florida and I am so
proud to say that our are three County
region in 18 months 18 months by using
the system we have housed nearly 800
formerly homeless people those who had
the most chronically
severe situations some of them 10 15 20
years living on the streets 800 people
we’ve has that deserves a round of
applause right oh and this model
remember $31,000 this on average across
the nation is costing our community
10,000 not only is it the right thing to
do it is absolutely the smart thing to
do so what about our families the John’s
and Jenna’s and their children what do
we do about them
well we haven’t figured that out what we
do know is that the basis of it we have
to get our families stabilized into
homes but it’s much more complex because
it’s economic right there is a gap
between what we make and what it costs
to live in Central Florida
on average $15 the cost to live here
$20 there’s a gap of almost $5 an hour
so what do we do about that well we
could raise wages we could look for
creative solutions to affordable housing
we could subsidize transportation and
childcare so what do we do I would argue
yes yes and yes it is a combination of
all of that but that’s going to require
a community strategy it’s going to take
all of us each and every one of you in
this room whether you represent business
government nonprofit the faith community
we have to have a community strategy on
how we fill that gap and it’s not unlike
any other community strategy we’ve ever
employed whether it’s I don’t know build
a new stadium or build a university even
in Central Florida bill
an entire Medical City it took a
strategy that was based on a shared
common vision on what we wanted to see
happen and then underpinning that vision
we have to have great data clear
deadlines and the dollars to support
that shared vision
can you imagine building this gorgeous
place without having all of those
elements in place in Central Florida
you’ve been on i-4 recently right the
i-4 ultimate project cost us 1.2 billion
dollars to get us a better way to
transfer from one region one part of the
region to the next
could you imagine the Florida Department
of Transportation doing that without
having excellent data great research
clear deadlines and the dollars to get
it done
could we employ the same approach to
solving homelessness we can and we are
at the Central Florida Commission on
homelessness with all of our partners
that’s our approach what we’re trying to
understand as a system is how do you get
a hundred and thirty different
organizations that currently touch
homelessness working in the same
direction well it starts with great data
for the last three years the Commission
has been working to put a face on
homelessness so that we can begin to see
our homeless as individual people who
need our help and support
it also takes deadlines two years ago we
said we were gonna house 300 chronically
homeless people and we’ve housed 800 we
can’t let up we have to continue on
clear consistent deadlines so we don’t
forget who we’re serving and finally
dollars this is not a government issue
alone
we all need to invest in this issue it’s
going to take all of us to invest in
solving homelessness for it to happen
so here vision data deadlines dollars
can we do this can you believe in this
vision because it’s gonna take all of us
can you believe that we could implement
a system and the underpinning of that
system is the belief that everyone in
Central Florida everyone in our
community deserves a home can you
believe can we work together to rethink
homelessness thank you very much
[Applause]
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